on the farm

Some earthy moments of our first day on the farm...

you get a chance to ride in the farmer's big truck if you have to use the bathroom in a particular way

Owen picking asparagus

Audrey in the celery rows we planted

We were asked to come up and help do some planting. We planted celery and celery root. The boys each gave planting a try...Ethan said he didn't want "get dirty" (kind-of out of character - I think he was just more interested in playing dirt clots with the other kids rather than "get dirty" with his momma)
to And while we were there we were able to pick asparagus. Ethan ate more than he; Owen plated about 6 plants and then his 3 year old attention span kicked in; Audrey spent most of the planting time in the backpack but even got her hands in the dirt and ate the celery sprout she was given - including the dirt it was planted in.

When we finished planting we ate our picnic lunch in the fields and then picked our share of asparagus. Ethan ate more than his share before it even got to the basket. Owen didn't last long in the fields...he preferred his blanket and cars in the van. Audrey was content in her car seat but ready for a nap...she fell asleep on our way down the drive-way.

We are so excited about our time to pretend we are farmers even though this is what we feel like when we are done...

a taste of audrey

Audrey Talks from vaporlife on Vimeo.

intimacy and holiness

The intimacy and holiness of the places I am walking with God are almost too great for me to experience for myself much less speak of. I wonder if should keep quiet about it...partly because I am not even sure of what God is up to... partly because I feel these places that God is inviting me to and opening up in me are so vulnerable and infant. I feel that I must guard them with my very life...like something that has just been born.

Also, the enemy is at work to steal, kill and destroy. I think that my silence has been a way that I have been fighting him...which makes sense to me because silence is the place that God has called me to for a while now. I have never thought of silence being an effective weapon of warfare but I am knowing that place and that victory in Christ...in our place of quiet.

(Thanks Mom...for seeing my uncertainty and validating me and the places God is bringing life...in spite of it.)

glorious dust

This morning I got the rare gift of a few moments of quiet after Mark had left for work and before the kids woke up. I was thoroughly enjoying the opportunity for some uninterrupted conversation with the Great 3 and think time to mull over the things He had for me this morning when I glanced over at this...


my communion with Him changed as my thanksgiving began to flow. I thought about the little toes that made impressions in my dust and I could not go on. There was even glory in my dust this morning.

first hair-do

I am aching for a little pig-tailed girl. This might be a stretch, but it is a first! They fell out about 3 minutes later and we haven't gotten any in since but it was still VERY cute!

PS - The tear is not from the process of me putting in the pig-tails... I know what you were thinking!

celebrating ethan

I have a 5 year old baby!

He has been wow-ing us since the day he was born when he joined the world with eyes WIDE open. He is an extraordinary boy with extraordinary ideas and a passionate way of life...very intense, fully engaged and ALL boy! I love the way his smile lights up his face and how his eyes squint when laughter bubbles up from inside him. And there is a simplicity to him that is very charming.

I do very little dreaming about what Ethan will be like as he grows because I don't think that I can't dream a dream big enough for him to fit into and I wouldn't want to get in his way. I live with an enormous expectancy for all that God has for them together, for all that He put into his great heart for the world, for the irreplaceable role he will have in the Kingdom.

I feel honored, blessed, humbled to be a part of the adventure that continues to unfold...that is Ethan's life.

Happy Birthday, Ethan!

beauty

"God has not made some beautiful things...Beauty is the creator of the universe."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

(...and He shows up at my front door ~Lorrie)

absent

don't feel like blogging...
think it is a part of the silent place God has called me to...
there is too much and nothing to say...

arranged

The only thing I can really say about my time away was that I felt the loving touch of a Romancing God. I felt that He arranged things for my time away as a lover arranges for his beloved. Things I didn't know I wanted or needed...ways my heart needed Him to come for me...places that needed to be exposed or rather called out or aroused.

This all had less to with the actual proceedings of the conference and more to do with the presence of my God...Father, Jesus, Spirit...and His abiding relationship with me. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. What it meant for me was a time that felt real as opposed to something I made up.

These were good, good days with my great, great Savior.

view from just outside the meeting room

away

God is sending me away...or rather He has made a way.

For several years now I have wanted to attend a Captivating retreat here in Colorado. Earlier this year I registered for the retreat but when it came time to pay for it Mark had no work and we felt it would be wise to "unregister" since we didn't know what the days would bring.

Saturday I was invited to join the work crew for the retreat and therefore be an attendee.

This time away is a blessed and lavish gift for my heart...especially since just last weekend Mark and I were talking about how I might be able to have some retreat time in the next few weeks. I find myself wondering what I will be like...it has been 8 years since I have been away from my family, on my own, for more than one night. I am anxiously awaiting the time to be with my God...Father, Son and Spirit...filled with anticipation for what He has for us in these days.


I will spent my days somewhere in these hills...I leave Wednesday afternoon and will be back Sunday.

Please pray for...
-Mark
-my children
-my heart
-details
-health
-safety